Back to Square One
by fullmetal53
Summary: When Alvin moves away from his siblings and becomes a detective, he finds that the most painful experience of his life trails him in the form of an unknown serial killer. Follow Alvin as he tries to make sense of the murders while he struggles not to loose sight of both his personhood, and his understanding of justice .


**Firstly: I want to give a huge shout out/thank you to Heartless Squirrel who was nice enough to let me use some of the elements from their story "It's Always Blind" which you can read here: /s/7653980/1/It-s-Always-Blind (after fan fiction . n.e.t. The doc manager won't let me put it in a convenient format.)  
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**I highly recommend it because in addition to the fact that its a fantastic read, it will also give you a more intimate understanding of whats going on, but its not strictly necessary to enjoy. I plan on making everything quite clear.**

**Secondly: The Chipmunks and the Chipettes are 25.**

**Thirdly: Kindly review (likes or dislikes) and ENJOY!**

* * *

The heavy rain pattered off of the rooftop while Alvin tried vainly to sleep. It seemed like the closer he came to dosing off, the more each rain drop started to sound like a knives on a cutting board. In a frustrated stupor, he turned over to glance at his alarm clock.

_ 1:30...ugh...and I've gotta be up at 6!_

At this point, he didn't even know why he should be surprised. He'd been dealing with this for years now... since he moved away from his hometown, if he could recall correctly at such an late hour.

When he finally moved away from Dave, the Millers, and his brothers, he thought that it would be amazing (the phrase he actually used was "Adventure of a Lifetime".) While he enjoyed his newfound independence for a while, he later discovered that he was quite lonely without his brothers beside him. The peace and quiet he expected to get as a result of being away from a house full of people turned out to be something closer to a deafeningly silent isolation.

So without them sleeping next to him, he simply lay awake staring at the ceiling which was adorned by various tears and a solitary ceiling fan. Even though the room itself had no light coming from it, the glow radiating from the street lights below were enough illuminate the somewhat depressing sight that was Alvin's apartment. The walls were almost entirely bare. In a couple of corners they were damaged and the wood behind them was actually visible. The floor was adorned with nothing but dust and creaky wood, and in the center of the room sat a television atop a small nightstand. Of course, no room belonging to Alvin Seville would be complete with his signature cap which lay on a fold-up tray right next to his alarm clock.

It was then that he realized that he still had one sliver of a chance to get to sleep. He reached over and grabbed a small uncapped bottled that was disappointingly light. When he turned the bottle upside down, his fears were confirmed.

_Guess I used the rest of em last night._

With a sigh, he let the bottle fall to the floor.

Another empty bottle of sleeping pills. Another sleepless night.

It was no surprise to him that he was practically ecstatic when the sound of his ringing phone stirred him from his thoughts of despair.

"Hello?"

"Seville?" The voice on the other end was gruff and the manner of speech was curt in a way that would suggest that the man never had time for anything above and beyond the absolute necessities.

_Great..._Alvin thought to himself, only two words into the conversation and he knew where this was going.

"It's Sully. I need you on 42nd and Marigold. Got a situation that needs some lookin into."

Alvin was only barely able to hold back a groan. Even if he WAS awake at 1:30 in the morning, it didn't mean that he wanted to go to work. "Ya know chief, I was kinda in the middle of sleeping-"

"Cut the crap Seville." If Sully could see Alvin, he would've have noticed his wincing. "I know you weren't sleeping because you _never_ sleep. Now I want you down here before the body gets cold, ya got that?"

Well so much for _that_ bluff. "Yeah, I got it." Before he could even get any more details, a dial tone interrupted him.

_ "_Jeez, what a hard ass."

Alvin slowly made his way to his closet and extracted from it a wide brimmed khaki colored hat with a matching trench coat. Some of the guys at the station liked to rib him calling him things like "little dick" and "Casablanca". His outfit of choice in conjunction with his diminutive stature certainly didn't help matters any, but he didn't care. Years ago he promised himself that if the opportunity presented itself, he would wear a coat like that every day to work and he remained true to that promise. They were probably just jealous anyways. He was their superior after all.

* * *

When Alvin finally arrived, a couple of squad cars were already there. When he got out of his own car, he headed down the alley that was now illuminated courtesy of the the flashing lights atop the police cars parked in front where three uniformed officers were conversing. One man of mountainous proportion walked to the front of the alley way to meet him. The officer greeted Alvin with a singular nod. "Detective Seville."

"Hows it going Le Remy?" Alvin was never one for formality.

"As well as can be expected Detective." Officer Le Remy extended his arm towards the two officers still on the other end of the alley, and Alvin took the lead.

"So what's the situation?" Alvin asked, seemingly more for the purpose of conversation than anything else. Le Remy pulled out a note pad and began rattling off the information that he had managed to compile. "Well, the victim is Male between ages 25 and 32. Name: Unknown. Cause of death, unknown.

"Alright, I guess well I guess we'll just let the folks at forensics handle the rest. I'll just have a quick look and-"

"Hey, Le Remy!" The shorter of the two officers in front of Alvin exclaimed. "Whens that detective gonna get here? I'm freezing my ass of here!" He took a bite out of his donut and helped himself to a sip of coffee before continuing. "And what the hell did you do? Take a puppy and put em in a trench coat?" He pointed to the tiny humanoid figure standing in front of Le Remy. "Quit screwin around."

Le Remy simply smiled ever so slightly shook his head and sighed. Newbies.

Alvin took off his hat and looked up at the officer whom he hoped, for the officer's sake, was new to the division, revealing a look of anger that would've given anyone with good sense pause. He thought that this type of garbage was done away with ten years ago after that accursed trial. He supposed that either he had never heard of a talking chipmunk before (hard to believe, seeing as how he and his brothers were international sensations for years along with the chipettes), or he didn't pay attention to one of the biggest trials in history. Either way, he should've just kept his mouth shut. Alvin raised a finger and used it to wordlessly signal the officer to come over.

_Like a dog,_ Alvin couldn't help but think to himself.

The officer stood in front of Alvin still with the swagger of a seasoned veteran that everyone in that alley knew he had no business exhibiting. Alvin motioned for the officer to bend down. The man seemed incredulous, but he nevertheless complied.

"First off, you can keep your "dog" comments to yourself officer..." he looked at the officer's badge and pronounced it slowly for emphasis, "Smith. Secondly, you'd better remember to show some respect to your _superiors, _unless you like being out of a job." When he said that, the offending officer's eyes bulged with the full realization of his blunder.

"Finally," He started; but before he continued, he looked at each of Smith's hands and slapped the respective consumable items out of each one. "While we all _appreciate_ you making sure that the donut shops don't go out of business, I need officers, not taste testers! This is a CRIME SCENE, not a BUFFET!" Alvin rolled his eyes and turned to the other officer who thankfully was smart enough to exercise his right to remain silent. "You," he pointed to the bewildered and clearly intimidated man, "I need you to escort officer Smith back to the station so I can make sure that he didn't get sprinkles on the body."

Alvin turned to address the possibly-former policeman once more, "I'll deal with you later." With that, Le Remy watched them walk past him and into one of the cars. Once they had finally driven away, he let out a bit of a chuckle. "I _almost_ feel sorry for the guy."

It was tough to deny that Alvin's species was a bit of a touchy subject for him. He was the best detective in the county, he was in better shape than anyone in his division and still he had to deal with idiots like Smith. "Lets just get this done so we can go home."

Alvin began scouring the area around the body in search of anything that could point to what happened. Maybe it was a stickup, it didn't seem premeditated. It honestly seemed...sloppy if it was planned out. While he was legitimately grateful that he didn't find any sprinkles, he did find a manage to find a pen at the feet of the victim. "Hmm...a pen..." he stated, rubbing his chin.

Le Remy sported a confused look. "Uh...detective? We are in an alleyway with a dumpster, a pen isn't all that uncommon."

"True," Alvin conceded, "but it _could _be a clue. The worst that can happen if we take this is nothing." He put on a pair of white gloves and gingerly placed the pen into a thin plastic bag. After setting the bag aside for later, he took a closer look at the body. The white sheet that was placed over the body obscured it completely. When he lifted it up, he confirmed that this was _definitely not_ a simple robbery.

Unless of course, armed robbers are in the business of stealing peoples clothes too. The man seemed like he was healthy enough when he was alive, but man was he skinny.

Alvin turned to the only living man in the alleyway, "And this is _exactly _how you found him? Without any clothes?"

Le Remy nodded. "Yes. Without a single stitch of clothing to be found."

Alvin peeled back the sheet so that he could see his entire body. "Hmmm..." He noticed that the areas around the wrists and ankles were more darkly colored. "Was he tied up at all when he was found?"

He received a curious look in response, "Not at all. The woman who called us about it just told us that there was a naked guy lying face up in an alley." As he recounted the info, he flipped through his notepad to see if there was anything else of note. "Seems like that's all there was when she stumbled upon it."

"Well then," Alvin said, taking off his gloves and picking up his bag, "I guess we're pretty much done here for now, and not a moment too soon." A vehicle which the two in the alleyway could only presume belonged to the coroner _finally_ arrived and two gentlemen stepped out and made their way to the body. As they moved to pick it up, Alvin almost slapped himself for his oversight. "Excuse me gentlemen, can you perhaps turn the body over?"

The two handlers thought that the request was odd, considering how easy it would've been for two officers to have done it before the body was to be pick up. It was late however and no one felt like arguing about it. The two physically unimposing individuals carefully turned the body face down. Alvin was powerless to hold back an exclamation, "Holy shit..."

The victim had the word "animal" carved into the flesh on his back, along with what appeared to be a date. " '3/17', what's that supposed to mean? Are you getting this Le Remy?"

He replied without even looking up from his notepad, "Already on it." After swallowing a lump in his throat he finally spoke, "Alright, he's all yours fellas."

Once the two officers got to the end of the alleyway, Alvin handed Le Remy the bag with the pen in it. "Put this in evidence. I'm going to be in a bit late today. If they come back with an id before I get in, you have my number."

"Understood."

"Oh, and before I forget, tell Smith that he's suspended and if Sully has a problem with it he can talk to me about it."

Le Remy gave one final nod before getting in his car and disappearing into the night.

When Alvin finally got home and(for the first time in months without the aid of sleeping pills) fell asleep it, was 5 in the morning. It was just his luck however that the coroners office decided to be efficient for once and he received a call at 7.

* * *

"Hello...?"

"Sorry, I didn't think I would ACTUALLY wake you detective."

"Na it's fine, I told you to call me if anything came up." Every other word in his sentence was either slurred or swiftly accompanied by a yawn. "So whats the news Larame?"

The man on the other end graciously and silently forgave the chipmunk for the butchering of his surname. "Well, we finally have an id on the victim. His name is Colin Rhodes. I...took the liberty of doing an admittedly cursory search to see if he had been in the news at all."

Alvin loved working with Le Remy. He was always going the extra mile and he was one of the few people who was actually happy to have him on board when he started doing investigative work for the 12th division. He did a bunch of the grunt leg work, which allowed Alvin the freedom to actually investigate instead of spending most of his time driving a desk and filling out a mountain of paperwork.

"As it turns out, you might know him."

This caught Alvin's attention immediately and spurred him from his grogginess. "You're kidding." Of course, he had worked with Le Remy enough times to know better.

"A while back, about ten or so years, he was heavily involved with an animal rights group that went by the name 'P.A.A.C.' Protectors for Animals Against Cruelty."

Alvin froze. He would never forget that acronym as long as he lived.

"Apparently he was...well..." Le Remy struggled noticeably, he was obviously uncomfortable discussing this with Alvin. Still, he had a job to do and he gathered his composure. "From what I'm reading, he spearheaded the test case 'Seville V. California'. I'm sure I don't need to remind you of what happened there."

He would never forget that case as long has he lived. It was the case that established with all but absolute finality that Alvin, his brothers, and the Chippettes were considered 'human' under the law. This in turn entitled his brothers and friends to all of the rights and privileges that a physical human would enjoy despite the fact that they were chipmunks. That crazy animal rights group had Dave thrown in jail and for about a month, he and his brothers had to live out of a tree house when they lost everything.

No, he didn't need anymore reminders of the scariest period of his entire life.

"Detective Seville...are you still there?" The chipmunk was stirred from his waking nightmare.

"Yeah, I'm still here." The detectives voice was a bit shaky. "Have they identified the cause of death or the time?"

"Unfortunately they haven't, its only been a few hours though."

" Of course. Say Le Remy...I gotta go. I'll still be in later today and we can talk a bit more in person."

"I understand. I'll speak with you later, detective."

Alvin couldn't hang up his phone fast enough. He was sweating just _listening _to Le Remy.

Ten years. Ten years that case had been over and done with and despite his most sincere efforts, it _still_ haunted him. He found himself just moments away from calling the chief and telling him to put someone else on this case. He wanted nothing to do with it. He took a moment to take some calming breaths.

_Just calm down, it's not different from any other case you've taken so far._

Once his heart finally stopped pounding in his ears and he was taking normal sized breaths, he was able to enjoy for a very short laugh at the irony of his current situation. He was now tasked with bringing the murderer of a man who believed that he was nothing more than an animal, to justice.

_Well, he had better be grateful._


End file.
